This week I focused on the design of the vision and sensing pipeline, particularly considering edge cases that could affect the reliability of the system. One scenario I examined was when the user suddenly performs a U-turn in a narrow hallway or walkway. In such cases the robot must avoid overshooting or losing track of the user, so I began designing logic that can handle rapid direction changes while maintaining safe motion. I also worked on refining the high-level state diagram of the system, including the idle, searching, following, and stop states, to ensure that transitions between these states are well defined and safe during unexpected situations.
In addition, I started thinking more carefully about how the ultrasonic sensing component should be integrated with the vision pipeline. The ultrasonic sensors are intended to provide a fast safety signal independent of the vision system, so I explored how they should interact with the perception and control loop. This includes determining when ultrasonic readings should override motion commands and how to structure the sensing pipeline so that obstacle detection remains responsive even if the vision processing slows down.
My progress is currently on schedule, as these design tasks align with our planned work on perception and sensing logic. Next week, I plan to continue implementing parts of the vision pipeline and begin integrating ultrasonic sensing with the rest of the perception system so that both modules can operate together in the control loop.